“I’ve been fulfilling a lot of people’s prophecies about me; I’ve become a real scumbag.” –Danny Vermin (Joe Piscopo)

In 1984, director Amy Heckerling (Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Clueless) gave us the comedy Johnny Dangerously, starring a dapper Michael Keaton, fresh off the success of Mr. Mom. Keaton’s performance in last year’s Birdman, which netted the Oscar for Best Picture, was one of his best. It was a delight revisiting his gangster persona to see just how well the actor and this gangster spoof have aged.

One of the first elements that establish this film as a gangster flick is the setting—the Lower East Side of New York City during the height of Prohibition. After a brief set-up introducing Keaton as our protagonist, we flash back to city streets filled with Studebakers, alleys ruled by an Irish mobster called Jocko Dundee, played with humor and charm by the late, great Peter Boyle (Young Frankenstein). Read More

Last month, Elle magazine compiled its “Power List” of women in Hollywood. On this list, put together by Deadline.com’s Nikki Finke, were some notable mentions in Hollywood, ranging from the elite to the lesser known, but most notable to me was New York Times film critic Manohla Dargis. Dargis is a hero of mine, not only for her erudite knowledge of film but also for pointing out that, even in the wake of Kathryn Bigelow’s Best Director win for The Hurt Locker at last year’s Oscars, there is still a glass ceiling for women filmmakers in Hollywood. In an Article she wrote last year, she points out that there is still a lack of opportunities to produce the kind of success Bigalow has had.

Dargis is not attacking men, either; much of her anger is directed toward women in the industry. Hollywood is not just made up of misogynistic men, it’s filled with people who come from many backgrounds. Many people are involved in making decisions about who gets opportunities to show what they can do, and women are just as much a part of that. To boil this problem down to sexism would be an easy answer and just another reason for many women trying to make a career in film to give up, but as Dargis points out, the scarcity of opportunities for women is a legitimate problem and worth talking about.